Essay: Computer Hacker

The meaning of Hacker is one who accesses a computer which is supposably not able to be accessed to nonauthorised people of the community. Hackers may use any type of system to access this informationdepending on what they intend on doing in the system.

Methods

Hackers may use a variety of ways to hack into a system. First if the hacker is experienced and smart thehacker will use telnet to access a shell on another machine so that the risk of getting caught is lower thandoing it using their own system.Ways in which the hacker will break into the system are:

1) Guess/cracking passwords. This is where the hacker takes guesses at the password or has a crackprogram to crack the password protecting the system.

2) Finding back doors is another way in which the hacker may get access to the system. This is where thehacker tries to find flaws in the system they are trying to enter.

3) One other way in which a hacker may try to get into a system is by using a program called a WORM.This program is specially programmed to suit the need of the user. This programme continually tries toconnect to a machine at over 100 times a second until eventually the system lets in and the worm executesits program. The program could be anything from getting password files to deleting files depending onwhat it has been programmed to do.

Protection

The only way that you or a company can stop a Hacker is by not having your computer connected to thenet. This is the only sure fire way in which you can stop a hacker entering your system. This is mainlybecause hackers use a phone line to access the system. If it is possible for one person to access the systemthen it is possible for a hacker to gain access to the system. One of the main problems is that majorcompanies need to be networked and accessible over the net so that employees can do overdue work or sothat people can look up things on that company. Also major companies network their offices so that theycan access data from different positions.

One way which is used to try to prevent hackers gaining access is a program used by companies called aFirewall. A Firewall is a program which stops other connections from different servers to the firewallserver. This is very effective in stopping hackers entering the system. Tho this is not a fool proof way ofstopping hackers as it can be broken and hackers can get in. Tho this is a very good way of protecting yoursystem on the InterNet.

Major Hacks

Some of the major hacks that have been committed have been done by young teens aged between 14 and18. These computer geniuses as they are known have expert knowledge on what they are doing and alsoknow the consequences. Tho the consequences do not really enter there mind when they are doing it.

This hack occurred on February 10, 1997, and again on February 14, 1997 Portuguese hackers launched apolitical attack on the web page of the Indonesian government, focusing on that country’s continuedoppression of East Timor. The attack was online for about 3 hours from 7.00 PM to 10.00 PM (PortugueseTime) at the web site of the Department of Foreign Affairs, Republic of Indonesia. The hackers did notdelete or change anything. The said “We just hack pages”.

Another major hack that occurred was on April 1 1981 by a single user. This hacker who was situated inan east coast brokage house was interested in the stock market. SO he purchased $100,000 worth of sharesin the stock market. Then he hacked into the stock markets main computers and stole $80 million dollars.The hacker was eventually caught although $53 million dollars was not recovered.

On Wednesday, March 5 1997 The home page of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s wasrecently hacked and the contents changed. The group known as H4G1S. This group of hackers managed tochange the contents of the webpage The hacking group changed the webpage and left a little message for all. It said “ Gr33t1ngs fr0m th3m3mb3rs 0f H4G1S. Our mission is to continue where our colleagues the ILF left off. During the nextmonth, we the members of H4G1S, will be launching an attack on corporate America. All who profit fromthe misuse of the InterNet will fall victim to our upcoming reign of digital terrorism.Our privileged and highly skilled members will stop at nothing until our presence is felt nationwide.Even your most sophisticated firewalls are useless. We will demonstrate this in the upcoming weeks”.

The homepage of the United States Air Force was recently hacked and the contents had been changed. Thewebpage had been changed completely as the hackers had inserted pornographic pictures saying “this iswhat we are doing to you” and had under the image “screwing you”. The hackers have changed it andshown their views on the political system.

One other major hack which was committed was by a 16 year old boy in Europe. This boy hacked into theBritish Airforce and downloaded confidential information on Ballistic missiles. The boy hacked into thesite and down loaded this information because he was interested and wanted to know more about them.This boy was fined a sum of money.

In conclusion it can be said that hackers are sophisticated and very talented when it comes to the use of acomputer. Hacking is a process of learning not following any manual. Hackers learn as they go and use amethod of trial and error. Most people who say they are hackers most of the time are not. Real hackers donot delete or destroy any information on the system they hack. Hackers hack because they love the thrill ofgetting into a system that is supposably unable to be entered. Overall hackers are smart and cause littledamage to the system they enter. So hackers are not really terrorists in a way they help companies find outflaws in their system.